A brand I know spent three years and a small fortune building 200,000 followers. One small algorithm change and their reach fell off a cliff. Same posts, same audience, a tenth of the eyeballs.
Here is the uncomfortable truth. You do not own a single one of those followers. You rent access to them, and the platform is the landlord. It sets the rent, it changes the rent without telling you, and it can evict you overnight with no appeal.
Followers are a number you can screenshot. They are not an asset you control.
The only audience you actually own is the one you can reach without asking permission. An email list. A phone number. A customer who opens your message because they chose to, not because an algorithm decided to show them.
Social is still worth doing. It is the shop window, the place strangers first meet you. But a shop window you rent is not a business. The business is the list of people you can talk to on a Tuesday, for free, whenever you want.